Sump pump with electronic controls?

[wpns]

Anyone have recommendation for a sump pump (around 1/3 HP is fine) with electronic controls? Ideally I'd like something that could fire up once in a while (every few hours? Once a day?) and if it detects that it's pumping water, continue till the water stops. Lots of 12Vboat bilge pumps that do this, but that's a whole nother nightmare.

This is for a couple of seasonal lakes that are a mosquito breeding ground after heavy rains, so they tend to grow roots which clog the pumps when I actually need them, and then I'm on a safari into the swamp with clouds of mosquitoes to unclog the pump.

I'm finding some options at sumppumpsdirect.com that have electronic water sensors, which isn't _exactly_ what I'm looking for, but would appreciate any recommendations for ones to look for or avoid.

I _could_ roll my own controller plus current meter, but while bespoke electronics are _fun_, so is COTS. 8*)

Thanks!

 

[TomFOhio]

Could you put your sump pump on a timer and have it come on and off whenever you want it too. Probably
cheaper too.

 

[wpns]

Unfortunately, the two common failure modes seem to be failed float switches and impellers clogged with roots.

To reduce the roots problem, I want the pump to come on once or twice a day for maybe a minute (not enough to heat up if there's no water to pump).

To eliminate the float switch problem, I want to measure the power drawn by the pump when it comes on, and if it's above a threshold, keep running till the power consumption drops (when it runs out of water).

I've found some Shelly Pro PM Ethernet-interfaced power measurement and control devices that mount on DIN rails, and I've got a couple on order to see how they do. Of course, there'll be a Linux computer (*) doing the timing, monitoring, and control, but I've got most of the software modules already, so it's not hard, it's just custom, and I'm on the critical path. 8*)

(*) Should be a Raspberry Pi, but those are hard to come by, so might be Inovato or something.